DC Statehood Green Party leaders join Ward 7 demands for restoration and reopening of Benning LibraryThe DC Statehood Green Party Friday, May 11, 2007 Contact: DC Statehood Green Party leaders join Ward 7 demands for restoration and reopening of Benning Library
WASHINGTON, DC -- DC Statehood Green Party leaders are supporting demands from Ward 7 community leaders that plans to tear down the existing Benning Library be canceled, and that the DC Public Library system take steps to restore and reopen the facility. "Local residents, especially ANCs, have been shut out of the decision-making process," said Rick Tingling-Clemmons, a Statehood Green Party activist who serves as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Single Member District 7D05. "We've been given no plans nor the opportunity to make any input into whatever plans there might be for the library. It's clear that the closing of Benning Library was motivated by a land grab and official generosity to developers and contractors. We've learned that [City Council Chair] Vincent Gray has stated in several community meetings in this area that his idea is to tear our library down and have it relocated in the new government building that is currently under construction for DOES among other agencies on Minnesota Avenue, NE. This has made it crystal clear that the principal scheme is to gain control of our land." Despite public opposition, Mr. Tingling-Clemmons noted that "in 2004, Benning Library was boarded up, the books moved out, and the heating system ripped out. The community was outraged that there hadn't even been thought given to the fact that the library was a polling location that had not been replaced; our award-winning chess club had been disrupted, the loss of that safe place resulting -- either directly or indirectly -- in the death of one of the young men in the club; a local child care program had lost its graduation space; many seniors had lost their daytime haven; the community had lost a decade-old exercise class; our children had lost their homework help; and many other community supports thoughtlessly disrupted." Statehood Green leaders compared the closing of Benning, Anacostia, and Watha T. Daniels branch libraries and lack of local library services to promises by city officials for quick restoration of Georgetown Library after the latter was severely damaged by a fire in April. "If restoring library services for Georgetown residents is so important, why isn't it important for people in Ward 7?" asked Eddie Rhodes, former Benning Neighborhood library volunteer, former Ward 7 ANC commissioner, activist, and former candidate for the Ward 7 seat on City Council. "If anything, Ward 7 residents -- many of whom don't have the financial resources to purchase books -- need their local library even more urgently than Georgetown residents do." "We need all our libraries open and functioning, especially for our children," agreed Ann Wilcox, former School Board member for Ward 2 and Statehood Green Party leader. Statehood Greens also called for the reopening of Anacostia Library in Ward 8. A temporary structure was opened there in April, with over 20 computer stations in constant use, with waiting lists. In a ward where speculators are salivating over the prospect of school buildings being declared "surplus," schools are without their own libraries, and the "great weight" provision allocated to ANCs has been violated, community leaders are calling it an "act of brutality" that the DC Public Library Commission left the Anacostia and Benning libraries closed for over two years, with no plan to date for permanent replacements. "We want our library reopened in the building it is in, with the equipment, accoutrements and staff to again function," said Mr. Tingling-Clemmons. "When that happens, we will then entertain other ideas about what we want done with our library. The bankrupt practice for folks who are not from this community to keep telling us what we need in our community -- generally for their own benefit --must stop. We will no longer allow anyone to tell us what we will do with our buildings or our property. This will no longer be tolerated by the taxpayers of this or any other ward of the city. We are prepared to go to court over this issue, and we'll ask for an injunction if the city moves to tear down Benning Library." MORE INFORMATION The DC Statehood Green Party
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